But blindly defending a culture of pure greed, money grubbing and playerbase TRIBBLE is fine right?
No Sir. Just Defending Against Promises and Guarantees that were Never Made at Launch Date. As for TRIBBLE the playerbase I think they are making it better For the Non Casuals Finally Instead of Pandering it to the base Of players that Actually Want to log on and talk instead of log on and play.
Proud Fleet Commander in Garfon's Renegades!
Proud Leader of the Massive Chaos Group
Proud Listener of Subspace-Radio.net The Voice of Star Trek Online.
[SIGPIC]http://massivechaos.enjin.com/[/SIGPIC]
So...people who don't want to log in and grind for five hours plus every day don't actually want to play the game.
I'll keep that in mind.
If you Grind for 5 hours.. I hope your maxing out at least 3 characters otherwise.. you sir are doing it wrong.
Proud Fleet Commander in Garfon's Renegades!
Proud Leader of the Massive Chaos Group
Proud Listener of Subspace-Radio.net The Voice of Star Trek Online.
[SIGPIC]http://massivechaos.enjin.com/[/SIGPIC]
well I can guarantee this, and again, something overlord Stahl can factor into his metrics, I will absolutely NOT play anything else this company produces. Believe me, i'm well aware of the harsh reality that PWE got my money for this sub, and its a mistake I flat out refuse to repeat.
You keep bringing up launch date this and that. Well guess what, we're waayyy passed the launch date. As I said in my very first post, this game is full of bugs and unfinished content and I highly doubt that much if any gets corrected/completed. I just can't understand how this is acceptable to anyone that plays, much less the people that made the TRIBBLE in the first place.
Say craptic produced this as a TV show and 1 out of every 4 shows didn't air, and the ones that did air, stopped half way through. Can you imagine how many people would even bother looking to see what time it comes on? I'm sure you're going to try to turn this around on me and say, derp well it isn't a tv show. The point is, if its broken and unfinished, people will give it little to no attention. Yes, that is somewhat of an over exaggeration, but not by much.
Yes people are playing, but for craptic to just sit back and only give half-hearted attempts to develop and maintain the game for that sole reason is just extremely poor ethically and a slap in the face of everyone that plays this game, especially to anyone that gives them money to do so.
*edit
I would just like to add too that just because some people don't quit playing is no reason that bugs shouldn't get fixed or for content to be finished.
They need to test content much longer on Tribble and stop rushing it.
It is generally a 2-5 day difference between a Tribble patch and a Holodeck patch. I think many of us would be more than happy to wait an extra week for all the bugs to be worked out.
You're expecting high standards from an MMO that doesn't have the same numbers as Rift?
I'm just saying, Cryptic's team was (and still is) smaller than most MMO teams, and they're doing the best they can currently, whatever people's opinions of the results. Give them a small break here
ive given them a break for three years now.. (for the first year and a half i was very sympathetic). but honestly, they are working in a buisness field where they are quickly becoming outclassed in every way..
ive said before, its time for pwe, and cryptic to make large scale decisions..
trion was a new, nobody team.. they had one guy from a large scale game.. they started small just like cryptic.. however, as they progressed, they made adjustments to keep them competative with other mmo companies.. cryptic seems to refuse to do this..
and that sends me one of 2 feelings.. that they dont think their engine can keep up with the industry so why bother.. or that they dont care.. niether one makes me feel very warm and invited to play their game..
its not just rift, every successfull game that has made it past the 2 or 3 year mark has had major content releases, has increased their team to meat the demands of the growing pop. in the game.. for some reason, this game has not done that.. and it does not show a good message..
cryptic and now pwe neander around fairly meaningless "season" that once in a great blue moon introduce something good.. season 6 was a blast.. however, season 4 and 5 and now 7 are not.. season 8 is not looking to promising either.. i was fully expecting a level cap increase, which they have been saying.. "season 7, then season 8, now they are pushing it even further away" the last time they increased the level cap, we got somewhat meaningfull content, and it took me more than a day to conquer the new content.. season 7 only took me a day, mere hrs. to see all it had to offer..
in closing, im not trying to take away from what they have been doing, only saying that while its ok.. its not enouph, the game simply is not keeping up with the industry..
simply, buisness 101, why should the average gamer play this game over other games in the industry.. the only reason (and the only one that has kept me here for this long lol) is that it is star trek.. if i was someone who didnt like star trek as much as i do, i would have left a long time ago.. and the numbers probably reflect that.. i know i see on my friends list and in fleet, that when they have a good season, lots of people log on, when they have a bad season, alot of people "disapear". and for the longest time, ive been watching people leave..
People here are getting to the point where they expect new content every month, and soon it will be every Thursday patch.
Eventually, with all the bits and pieces that the developers are putting into the game, which really, since the game went F2P has increased more then the previous time before they launched and F2P happened.
A few maps to make a new featured series of episodes isn't as much work as outright modifying big parts of the engine to add reputation that people here on the forums wanted, expanding the fleets etc.
So if they keep giving us a bone, and patching it to make it better a week or two later, who cares, at least we get new content.
My Steam ticker is at 400 hours for this game, verses the 12 hours it took me to beat Call of Duty Black Ops 2, and that game will never get any expansions like STO does. I am pretty sure it took me ~60 hours just to get to level 50 in the first place.
Jim
ok first off, call of duty, and other console games are not even remotely in the same realm as an mmo..
its not that were looking for weekly content. but if you have ever played an mmo before.. generally, their content releases will keep the player base busy for a large portion of the time before the next content release.. ie, lets say world of ******** releases an expansion. that expansion will take months to get through (for the normal player).. further more, it usually adds lots of new dynamics to the game.. during that expansion, they will release new raids, and or other forms of smaller content as needed.. so in essence, they are keeping the cheese infront of you pretty regularly.
typically, a game releases with twice the content sto did. typically after 2 or three years, there is a major expansion, thus reinventing the game..
sto launched with half the content a "normal" mmo launched with. and three years later, is now somewhat fit for launch.. (meaning that if they launched the game in its current config. it would be on par with other mmo's.
now. you have a game like rift, who chooses to do their content releases almost monthly. studios were in the same boat when they started, newer studios whom were trying to grow.. however, trion has grown, they have realized they cant be one of the big boys in the mmo industry without having something as basic as customer support, which is non existent in the game.. they have created a large team to keep up with the demands.. in esence, they believe in their game and product enouph that they have made the commitment to it..
cryptic has not.. they release content on what used to be a quartly basis, but now has slipped to something like twice a year.. and honestly, before pwe, there was much more meaningfull, and worthwhile content on a more regular basis. sure, they have doubled their team size, but it took 2.5 years, and they still are one of the smallest teams with one of the biggest ips, in the industry.. this shows a lack of dedication, and belief in their own product. just like us lifers were asked to take a risk and believe in the game to make a large scale investment, cryptic has not done the same...
im not trying to say this game is not a good game.. it peeks my interest here and there, and mostly as a star trek diehard fan. but i find myself playing other games far more frequently. this game is ok.. at best, and i would love to see cryptic finally put the resources into the game to make it great... weekly content is not realistic.. i would gladly have no more "major" releases for 6 months to a year to have them make an expansion, and make it right..
Agreed, it's time to fix bugs now. There's been too many additions recently, many new bugs, and most of them haven't been even looked at. There are even a couple of bugs i reported during the tribble test time, and they are still here.
It's amazing. There's a bug report subsection, there are many very annoying bugs, anf they never get fixed. I think i reported more than 20 ones via tickets or on the forums, with as many details as possible, screenshots, and very few have been fixed.
And then they are surprised when players don't want to report funny but critical bugs like kdf players on ESD. Those who know how it works are also the ones who sent so many ignored tickets. It's just the expectable consequence of this behaviour: if you get constantly ignored when you offer yur help you stop helping people who obviously don't want your help, at some point, and you'll refuse to help after that even if they ask politely.
I'm not saying the devs aren't working hard. Obviously they are, but it's time to stop making new additions for some time to fix the whole game.
The most annoying bugs aren't those who prevent you from playing a given instance, it's bugs requiring silly workarounds extending your game time incredibly for insignificant progresses.
notice cryptic being decidedly quiet regarding all of the broken/missing things from the reputation system. It's like they're playing some kind of ultimate troll game. Even some of the more reserved people on the forums are getting pissed. Just.... why? Please, cryptic, just give us an honest answer to that question, why?
well I can guarantee this, and again, something overlord Stahl can factor into his metrics, I will absolutely NOT play anything else this company produces. Believe me, i'm well aware of the harsh reality that PWE got my money for this sub, and its a mistake I flat out refuse to repeat.
But are you going the extra mile and telling all your friends of your personal experiences with Cryptic?
I am. I also do my utmost to provide them with a lens through which to filter all the nice things NW is hyping. See, having worked in management I can tell you that the only thing that will shake things up enough for STO and CO to have a real hope of improving is that NW fails and (as unlikely as it is due to the usual corporate egos) that resources be rerouted to STO and CO. STO may be hiring but clearly needs more experienced devs working on it... ideally devs that would have enough care to test an item before putting it in the rep store..... Over in Co things are far more dire than in STO, the longtime players are pretty much accepting it has entered maintenance mode .
I'm glad that one got fixed. However, their efforts hardly seem adequate. Here we are almost a month now after s7 launched, the thread on borg one shotting folks in estf continues... how about the exploit in the winter event? Id almost bet money that one doesn't get fixed because it wont be around after a month. How about the omega engine not reducing the cool down on transwarp? the list can get pretty long if we're gonna say what they fixed vs what they haven't. I admitted as much that they do fix some bugs, but the vast majority of them, they don't fix, and they barely comment on them one way or another.
Ok you have to wake up and smell the coffee mate.
Blizzerd entertainment, creators or world of ******** THE BIGGEST MMO. (And I belive still the most popular though not by as much these days) Had bugs from ALPHA.
One I recall well was a silly little bug that made a paladin buff show the wrong icon on the buff bar, They finally fixed it in the Wrath of the litch king expansion, Thats what 4-5 years to fix an ICON.
Now in retrospect cryptic I think have done well considiering there size compared to blizzerd.
Can they do better, deffinatly
Will ranting and raving and starting cryptic bash threads help, doubtful.
Ask yourself this...
Whats more important
Fixing a bug that causes the game to crash for 3% of the player base
or
Fixing a glitch that causes the AI to get stuck, a torp to not display correctly, the wrong sound effect ect for everyone..
Answer: the crash bug ofc.
Now ask yourself whats more important
Fixing a glitch that causes the AI to get stuck, a torp to not display correctly, the wrong sound effect ect for everyone that is just a small annoyance,
or
Making content for 70% of the player base thats burning it faster than cryptic can make it.
Answer: the content, why if theres no content cryptic lose 70% of there customers.
General bugs are Usually done by a small part of the team in ANY GAME DEVELOPMENT.
And there done in order of severity.
- Game crashes/lockups
- Login/account issues (Also have billing and account support for this)
- Hardware related issues (Overheating/compatability issues)
- Movement/travel bugs
- Combat bugs
ect ect
Graphical/sound bugs are so far down the list you can't even see them.
No If they switched all there team to bug fixing, yes they would squash all the bugs within a month maybe two.
But then they would be four months behind any other content, 70% of the player base would just leave due to lack of content, and then the game would compleatly die and be shut down because of negative profits.
There team is what maybe 30 or so strong, (Might go up now the merger with VW is done) Think about all the different jobs that need doing, you will answer most of the why questions yourself.
Blizzerd entertainment, creators or world of ******** THE BIGGEST MMO. (And I belive still the most popular though not by as much these days) Had bugs from ALPHA.
One I recall well was a silly little bug that made a paladin buff show the wrong icon on the buff bar, They finally fixed it in the Wrath of the litch king expansion, Thats what 4-5 years to fix an ICON.
Now in retrospect cryptic I think have done well considiering there size compared to blizzerd.
Can they do better, deffinatly
Will ranting and raving and starting cryptic bash threads help, doubtful.
blizzard is/was also wildly successful, not to mention they also had a strong customer support policy. Cryptic isn't and does not.
Fixing a bug that causes the game to crash for 3% of the player base
or
Fixing a glitch that causes the AI to get stuck, a torp to not display correctly, the wrong sound effect ect for everyone..
Answer: the crash bug ofc.
Well lets see. Hrm a bug that effects 3/100 people or a bug that effects 100/100 people. Sorry but when I asked myself this question, my priority would be the bug that effects everyone. But here's the kicker, all of them should be addressed in a reasonable amount of time.
Fixing a glitch that causes the AI to get stuck, a torp to not display correctly, the wrong sound effect ect for everyone that is just a small annoyance,
or
Making content for 70% of the player base thats burning it faster than cryptic can make it.
Answer: the content, why if theres no content cryptic lose 70% of there customers.
Here, once again, I asked myself this silly question and the answer I come up with is, so what if production is delayed by a few weeks. work it must, shine it may. No matter how much you try to polish a TRIBBLE, it still stinks.
General bugs are Usually done by a small part of the team in ANY GAME DEVELOPMENT.
And there done in order of severity.
- Game crashes/lockups
- Login/account issues (Also have billing and account support for this)
- Hardware related issues (Overheating/compatability issues)
- Movement/travel bugs
- Combat bugs
ect ect
Graphical/sound bugs are so far down the list you can't even see them.
No If they switched all there team to bug fixing, yes they would squash all the bugs within a month maybe two.
But then they would be four months behind any other content, 70% of the player base would just leave due to lack of content, and then the game would compleatly die and be shut down because of negative profits.
There team is what maybe 30 or so strong, (Might go up now the merger with VW is done) Think about all the different jobs that need doing, you will answer most of the why questions yourself.
I don't see anyone here saying "make new stuff or I quit" but I do see people saying "fix these bugs or I quit" Whether they mean that or not is irrelevant. I can't tell you what % of the player base wants to see bugs fixed, id really be shocked if its less than 100%... honestly, who wouldn't want to see bugs fixed. And sure, id also be shocked if less than 100% doesn't want new content... again, who wouldn't. I don't see people screaming for new content, what I see is people wanting bugs to be fixed and the content that's already here to be finished before the next set of content is released. There is absolutely nothing unrealistic about that and it just makes sense for it to get done.
There's no reason to release something that has this many problems with it's model/textures. And some of them, like no floodlights on the name/registry, which every ship has, are just glaring..
blizzard is/was also wildly successful, not to mention they also had a strong customer support policy. Cryptic isn't and does not.
You didnt play wow when it first came out did you, The bugs were rife and MOST of the major ones didnt get fixed untill the 3rd expansion, remember blizzerd has ALOT more man power and recources than cryptic.
Well lets see. Hrm a bug that effects 3/100 people or a bug that effects 100/100 people. Sorry but when I asked myself this question, my priority would be the bug that effects everyone. But here's the kicker, all of them should be addressed in a reasonable amount of time.
So you would fix a small grapical bug than a game crashing bug, this is why you will never be a developer
Here, once again, I asked myself this silly question and the answer I come up with is, so what if production is delayed by a few weeks. work it must, shine it may. No matter how much you try to polish a TRIBBLE, it still stinks.
Again content that has a few minor bugs is better than no content, You can't get someone who works on story writing, game stability to work on graphic glitches when they have no experiance in that field, Would you take your car to a bakery to get fixed or a garage.
I don't see anyone here saying "make new stuff or I quit" but I do see people saying "fix these bugs or I quit" Whether they mean that or not is irrelevant. I can't tell you what % of the player base wants to see bugs fixed, id really be shocked if its less than 100%... honestly, who wouldn't want to see bugs fixed. And sure, id also be shocked if less than 100% doesn't want new content... again, who wouldn't. I don't see people screaming for new content, what I see is people wanting bugs to be fixed and the content that's already here to be finished before the next set of content is released. There is absolutely nothing unrealistic about that and it just makes sense for it to get done.
No people wont say it, they will just leave, It happend in wow, it happend when sto first came out. When this game first came out there was easily double the people playing it, maybe more. After 2-3 months alot left due to NOTHING TO DO.
small graphical bugs and harmless bugs may well be annoying, but if it isnt game changing there low prio.
I can name LOADS of games that get sold with massive game breaking bugs and they never get fixed.
This is an MMO, its constantly evolving, always changing, NO game company and I mean NONE has ever released a MMO that didnt have bugs, Heck wow STILL has a bug from alpha where you can get under stormwind, If your found there you get banned/warning,
I bet any money you would whine like a little girl if you had a bug that caused your game to crash, but instead of fixing it they just fixed graphical glitches instead.
And to be fair, apart from the odd graphical glitch (Witch I belive is more of a lighting issue anyways) I have encounterd no bugs that effect gameplay in any way.
I'm tending to agree with the topic creator here... Although I will wager that many of the bugs we complain about that convey this feeling of unfinished-ness are in many cases minor compared to things that were caught and fixed.
Some bugs are like hammer dents in the wall; they detract from the quality of the wall, but ultimately you can live with them, if you aren't too OCD about it anyway.
But a few of these bugs bear a striking resemblance to sledge-hammer shaped holes in the wall; and the contractor seems disinterested in fixing (if even acknowledging) them. There's just no way to walk by that damn wall without sighing and wondering if he'll ever show up to do something about it.
Don't get me wrong, there's plenty of sections of drywall with no flaws, but some of these holes are right next to light switches, I'm interacting with the thing right next to them all the time!
I might be stretching the metaphor a little - At least with the wall, in most cases you can do something about it.
dariusmajere is right about a lot of things but about one thing he is completely wrong : KDF was supposed to be a complete alternative to FED - including levels 1-20 - they just couldn't get it done before the game was released . The fact they didn't do so afterwards is less excusable than is suggested here.
I distinctly remember it being advertised with both factions ( to have "two completely different experiences with your captain " ) .
No people wont say it, they will just leave, It happend in wow, it happend when sto first came out. When this game first came out there was easily double the people playing it, maybe more. After 2-3 months alot left due to NOTHING TO DO.
small graphical bugs and harmless bugs may well be annoying, but if it isnt game changing there low prio.
I can name LOADS of games that get sold with massive game breaking bugs and they never get fixed.
This is an MMO, its constantly evolving, always changing, NO game company and I mean NONE has ever released a MMO that didnt have bugs, Heck wow STILL has a bug from alpha where you can get under stormwind, If your found there you get banned/warning,
I bet any money you would whine like a little girl if you had a bug that caused your game to crash, but instead of fixing it they just fixed graphical glitches instead.
And to be fair, apart from the odd graphical glitch (Witch I belive is more of a lighting issue anyways) I have encounterd no bugs that effect gameplay in any way.
ive said this multiple times, so to save you the trouble of actually reading the thread, which you obviously haven't, I'm not expecting perfection. I know there will be bugs, I'm not debating that. But lets list the bugs off the top of my head that do affect gameplay since you are, i'm guessing, new here and prolly haven't made it past lvl 30 on your first toon.
ESTFS - Borg are one shotting people with invisible plasma torpedoes. not high yield, not critical hits, but one massive 50k+ hit that that will kill you with full shield and hull hp.
Omega reputation t4 - Mk XII prosthetic arm store is empty
Romulan reputation t4 - Hyper Plasma Torpedo isn't there as advertised, its instead a placeholder rapid fire torpedo not part of the set.
Romulan Embassy consoles - duplicates of the -threat and + threat consoles, no disparity in them, IE all of the plasma infuser graviton consoles are -threat and duplicated in the store
Romulan Embassy plasma infuser consoles - plasma burn proc is not being properly added to some weapons.
Romulan Embassy Boffs - racial traits aren't working at all.
Omega Impulse Engine - cool down reduction isn't working for slipstream travel
UI Chat interface - half the time, it doesn't recognize im in a fleet so I can't select 'fleet' as a default chat channel, I'm having to type in /fleet every time I want to say something.
these are just some of the bugs I've encountered since s7 launched. These aren't graphical glitches, these are game play affecting bugs. Wanna try again?
Not sure how many mmo's you have been in, but for going on its 3rd year for a game that got dropped on there lap and being converted onto there engine slowly, they are not doing bad. Hell look at games with much larger studios and financial back where they are.. TOR barely could hold subs due to its issues they didnt even make a year before plunging F2P with one of the worst micro markets i have ever seen.
Better yet..have you seen Diablo 3 put out by mega developer BLIZZARD and all its issues and it literallyhas parts that did not make it to release yet. Heavy nerfing done to items in games and the destruction of what made Diablio 2 last so long with the now big push to aid casuals and blow off the elitist niche market the game series had.
STO for its age is doing pretty good. Not the best, but still above the grade. Most games do not start becoming strong until the 5th year. Hell eve online is on its 18th expansion since 2003 and only the last few expansions has it been fixing issues from 2003 to now.
Acutally hoss, there are quite a few issues with this game that could be deemed excessive. Ive encountered bugs that have been around for a long time...bugs like the Red Alert bug, a bug that for me is game breaking...still not fixed.
These devs remind me of the inexperienced devs over at TOR. A game i played for just 6 months before realizing what a garbage pile it was. I am beginning to feel that way here with STO, just 2 months and 5 level 50's later.
I hope one day, this game will be polished, but more than likely, it will not. If your having fun playing and enjoy the game, then by all means, enjoy. However, it may soon lose another paying customer/zen purchaser
ESTFS - Borg are one shotting people with invisible plasma torpedoes. not high yield, not critical hits, but one massive 50k+ hit that that will kill you with full shield and hull hp.
Omega reputation t4 - Mk XII prosthetic arm store is empty
Romulan reputation t4 - Hyper Plasma Torpedo isn't there as advertised, its instead a placeholder rapid fire torpedo not part of the set.
Romulan Embassy consoles - duplicates of the -threat and + threat consoles, no disparity in them, IE all of the plasma infuser graviton consoles are -threat and duplicated in the store
Romulan Embassy plasma infuser consoles - plasma burn proc is not being properly added to some weapons.
Romulan Embassy Boffs - racial traits aren't working at all.
Omega Impulse Engine - cool down reduction isn't working for slipstream travel
UI Chat interface - half the time, it doesn't recognize im in a fleet so I can't select 'fleet' as a default chat channel, I'm having to type in /fleet every time I want to say something.
these are just some of the bugs I've encountered since s7 launched. These aren't graphical glitches, these are game play affecting bugs. Wanna try again?
Geez... I started playing just before season 7, is this what I got to look forward to and more?
Yes it is that bad, the game is absolutely littered with bugs, pretending it isn't is just being out of touch with reality. You look anywhere and you see bugs bugs bugs that never get touched, so old that most people just forget they are bugs and are used to working around everything.
Nearly every mission and facet of combat is buggy.
Geez... I started playing just before season 7, is this what I got to look forward to and more?
STO might have some growing pains, but at least it is F2P and still growing. May not be prefect, but we are still getting more then other F2P games out there (SW:TOR for one shining example of how to give your players nothing in F2P and somehow still attract players. :rolleyes: )
A moment of your time... A certain willful and vulgar misspelling of "Cryptic" that has become all too common is actually a violation of forum rules and it has turned up quite often in this thread.
Please refrain from using it, and please edit any posts where you have recently used it.
To be clear, negative feedback is not being censored but there are certain words being used that are vulgar, offensive, and draw trolls to the flames. This is subject to moderation.
Thanks in advance for your cooperation.
Live Long and Prosper,
-Bluegeek
My views may not represent those of Cryptic Studios or Perfect World Entertainment. You can file a "forums and website" support ticket here Link: How to PM - Twitter @STOMod_Bluegeek
Comments
But blindly defending a culture of pure greed, money grubbing and playerbase TRIBBLE is fine right?
No Sir. Just Defending Against Promises and Guarantees that were Never Made at Launch Date. As for TRIBBLE the playerbase I think they are making it better For the Non Casuals Finally Instead of Pandering it to the base Of players that Actually Want to log on and talk instead of log on and play.
Proud Leader of the Massive Chaos Group
Proud Listener of Subspace-Radio.net The Voice of Star Trek Online.
[SIGPIC]http://massivechaos.enjin.com/[/SIGPIC]
I'll keep that in mind.
If you Grind for 5 hours.. I hope your maxing out at least 3 characters otherwise.. you sir are doing it wrong.
Proud Leader of the Massive Chaos Group
Proud Listener of Subspace-Radio.net The Voice of Star Trek Online.
[SIGPIC]http://massivechaos.enjin.com/[/SIGPIC]
You keep bringing up launch date this and that. Well guess what, we're waayyy passed the launch date. As I said in my very first post, this game is full of bugs and unfinished content and I highly doubt that much if any gets corrected/completed. I just can't understand how this is acceptable to anyone that plays, much less the people that made the TRIBBLE in the first place.
Say craptic produced this as a TV show and 1 out of every 4 shows didn't air, and the ones that did air, stopped half way through. Can you imagine how many people would even bother looking to see what time it comes on? I'm sure you're going to try to turn this around on me and say, derp well it isn't a tv show. The point is, if its broken and unfinished, people will give it little to no attention. Yes, that is somewhat of an over exaggeration, but not by much.
Yes people are playing, but for craptic to just sit back and only give half-hearted attempts to develop and maintain the game for that sole reason is just extremely poor ethically and a slap in the face of everyone that plays this game, especially to anyone that gives them money to do so.
*edit
I would just like to add too that just because some people don't quit playing is no reason that bugs shouldn't get fixed or for content to be finished.
It is generally a 2-5 day difference between a Tribble patch and a Holodeck patch. I think many of us would be more than happy to wait an extra week for all the bugs to be worked out.
Fan boys hurt my head.
ive given them a break for three years now.. (for the first year and a half i was very sympathetic). but honestly, they are working in a buisness field where they are quickly becoming outclassed in every way..
ive said before, its time for pwe, and cryptic to make large scale decisions..
trion was a new, nobody team.. they had one guy from a large scale game.. they started small just like cryptic.. however, as they progressed, they made adjustments to keep them competative with other mmo companies.. cryptic seems to refuse to do this..
and that sends me one of 2 feelings.. that they dont think their engine can keep up with the industry so why bother.. or that they dont care.. niether one makes me feel very warm and invited to play their game..
its not just rift, every successfull game that has made it past the 2 or 3 year mark has had major content releases, has increased their team to meat the demands of the growing pop. in the game.. for some reason, this game has not done that.. and it does not show a good message..
cryptic and now pwe neander around fairly meaningless "season" that once in a great blue moon introduce something good.. season 6 was a blast.. however, season 4 and 5 and now 7 are not.. season 8 is not looking to promising either.. i was fully expecting a level cap increase, which they have been saying.. "season 7, then season 8, now they are pushing it even further away" the last time they increased the level cap, we got somewhat meaningfull content, and it took me more than a day to conquer the new content.. season 7 only took me a day, mere hrs. to see all it had to offer..
in closing, im not trying to take away from what they have been doing, only saying that while its ok.. its not enouph, the game simply is not keeping up with the industry..
simply, buisness 101, why should the average gamer play this game over other games in the industry.. the only reason (and the only one that has kept me here for this long lol) is that it is star trek.. if i was someone who didnt like star trek as much as i do, i would have left a long time ago.. and the numbers probably reflect that.. i know i see on my friends list and in fleet, that when they have a good season, lots of people log on, when they have a bad season, alot of people "disapear". and for the longest time, ive been watching people leave..
ok first off, call of duty, and other console games are not even remotely in the same realm as an mmo..
its not that were looking for weekly content. but if you have ever played an mmo before.. generally, their content releases will keep the player base busy for a large portion of the time before the next content release.. ie, lets say world of ******** releases an expansion. that expansion will take months to get through (for the normal player).. further more, it usually adds lots of new dynamics to the game.. during that expansion, they will release new raids, and or other forms of smaller content as needed.. so in essence, they are keeping the cheese infront of you pretty regularly.
typically, a game releases with twice the content sto did. typically after 2 or three years, there is a major expansion, thus reinventing the game..
sto launched with half the content a "normal" mmo launched with. and three years later, is now somewhat fit for launch.. (meaning that if they launched the game in its current config. it would be on par with other mmo's.
now. you have a game like rift, who chooses to do their content releases almost monthly. studios were in the same boat when they started, newer studios whom were trying to grow.. however, trion has grown, they have realized they cant be one of the big boys in the mmo industry without having something as basic as customer support, which is non existent in the game.. they have created a large team to keep up with the demands.. in esence, they believe in their game and product enouph that they have made the commitment to it..
cryptic has not.. they release content on what used to be a quartly basis, but now has slipped to something like twice a year.. and honestly, before pwe, there was much more meaningfull, and worthwhile content on a more regular basis. sure, they have doubled their team size, but it took 2.5 years, and they still are one of the smallest teams with one of the biggest ips, in the industry.. this shows a lack of dedication, and belief in their own product. just like us lifers were asked to take a risk and believe in the game to make a large scale investment, cryptic has not done the same...
im not trying to say this game is not a good game.. it peeks my interest here and there, and mostly as a star trek diehard fan. but i find myself playing other games far more frequently. this game is ok.. at best, and i would love to see cryptic finally put the resources into the game to make it great... weekly content is not realistic.. i would gladly have no more "major" releases for 6 months to a year to have them make an expansion, and make it right..
It's amazing. There's a bug report subsection, there are many very annoying bugs, anf they never get fixed. I think i reported more than 20 ones via tickets or on the forums, with as many details as possible, screenshots, and very few have been fixed.
And then they are surprised when players don't want to report funny but critical bugs like kdf players on ESD. Those who know how it works are also the ones who sent so many ignored tickets. It's just the expectable consequence of this behaviour: if you get constantly ignored when you offer yur help you stop helping people who obviously don't want your help, at some point, and you'll refuse to help after that even if they ask politely.
I'm not saying the devs aren't working hard. Obviously they are, but it's time to stop making new additions for some time to fix the whole game.
The most annoying bugs aren't those who prevent you from playing a given instance, it's bugs requiring silly workarounds extending your game time incredibly for insignificant progresses.
God, lvl 60 CW. 17k.
But are you going the extra mile and telling all your friends of your personal experiences with Cryptic?
I am. I also do my utmost to provide them with a lens through which to filter all the nice things NW is hyping. See, having worked in management I can tell you that the only thing that will shake things up enough for STO and CO to have a real hope of improving is that NW fails and (as unlikely as it is due to the usual corporate egos) that resources be rerouted to STO and CO. STO may be hiring but clearly needs more experienced devs working on it... ideally devs that would have enough care to test an item before putting it in the rep store..... Over in Co things are far more dire than in STO, the longtime players are pretty much accepting it has entered maintenance mode
Ok you have to wake up and smell the coffee mate.
Blizzerd entertainment, creators or world of ******** THE BIGGEST MMO. (And I belive still the most popular though not by as much these days) Had bugs from ALPHA.
One I recall well was a silly little bug that made a paladin buff show the wrong icon on the buff bar, They finally fixed it in the Wrath of the litch king expansion, Thats what 4-5 years to fix an ICON.
Now in retrospect cryptic I think have done well considiering there size compared to blizzerd.
Can they do better, deffinatly
Will ranting and raving and starting cryptic bash threads help, doubtful.
Ask yourself this...
Whats more important
Fixing a bug that causes the game to crash for 3% of the player base
or
Fixing a glitch that causes the AI to get stuck, a torp to not display correctly, the wrong sound effect ect for everyone..
Answer: the crash bug ofc.
Now ask yourself whats more important
Fixing a glitch that causes the AI to get stuck, a torp to not display correctly, the wrong sound effect ect for everyone that is just a small annoyance,
or
Making content for 70% of the player base thats burning it faster than cryptic can make it.
Answer: the content, why if theres no content cryptic lose 70% of there customers.
General bugs are Usually done by a small part of the team in ANY GAME DEVELOPMENT.
And there done in order of severity.
- Game crashes/lockups
- Login/account issues (Also have billing and account support for this)
- Hardware related issues (Overheating/compatability issues)
- Movement/travel bugs
- Combat bugs
ect ect
Graphical/sound bugs are so far down the list you can't even see them.
No If they switched all there team to bug fixing, yes they would squash all the bugs within a month maybe two.
But then they would be four months behind any other content, 70% of the player base would just leave due to lack of content, and then the game would compleatly die and be shut down because of negative profits.
There team is what maybe 30 or so strong, (Might go up now the merger with VW is done) Think about all the different jobs that need doing, you will answer most of the why questions yourself.
I don't drink coffee, and I'm quite awake.
blizzard is/was also wildly successful, not to mention they also had a strong customer support policy. Cryptic isn't and does not.
Well lets see. Hrm a bug that effects 3/100 people or a bug that effects 100/100 people. Sorry but when I asked myself this question, my priority would be the bug that effects everyone. But here's the kicker, all of them should be addressed in a reasonable amount of time.
Here, once again, I asked myself this silly question and the answer I come up with is, so what if production is delayed by a few weeks. work it must, shine it may. No matter how much you try to polish a TRIBBLE, it still stinks.
I don't see anyone here saying "make new stuff or I quit" but I do see people saying "fix these bugs or I quit" Whether they mean that or not is irrelevant. I can't tell you what % of the player base wants to see bugs fixed, id really be shocked if its less than 100%... honestly, who wouldn't want to see bugs fixed. And sure, id also be shocked if less than 100% doesn't want new content... again, who wouldn't. I don't see people screaming for new content, what I see is people wanting bugs to be fixed and the content that's already here to be finished before the next set of content is released. There is absolutely nothing unrealistic about that and it just makes sense for it to get done.
I mean, if we break down half-finished content into a ship-by-ship basis, look at my analysis on the Steamrunner..a $25.00 ship..
http://sto-forum.perfectworld.com/showthread.php?t=481751
There's no reason to release something that has this many problems with it's model/textures. And some of them, like no floodlights on the name/registry, which every ship has, are just glaring..
No people wont say it, they will just leave, It happend in wow, it happend when sto first came out. When this game first came out there was easily double the people playing it, maybe more. After 2-3 months alot left due to NOTHING TO DO.
small graphical bugs and harmless bugs may well be annoying, but if it isnt game changing there low prio.
I can name LOADS of games that get sold with massive game breaking bugs and they never get fixed.
This is an MMO, its constantly evolving, always changing, NO game company and I mean NONE has ever released a MMO that didnt have bugs, Heck wow STILL has a bug from alpha where you can get under stormwind, If your found there you get banned/warning,
I bet any money you would whine like a little girl if you had a bug that caused your game to crash, but instead of fixing it they just fixed graphical glitches instead.
And to be fair, apart from the odd graphical glitch (Witch I belive is more of a lighting issue anyways) I have encounterd no bugs that effect gameplay in any way.
Some bugs are like hammer dents in the wall; they detract from the quality of the wall, but ultimately you can live with them, if you aren't too OCD about it anyway.
But a few of these bugs bear a striking resemblance to sledge-hammer shaped holes in the wall; and the contractor seems disinterested in fixing (if even acknowledging) them. There's just no way to walk by that damn wall without sighing and wondering if he'll ever show up to do something about it.
Don't get me wrong, there's plenty of sections of drywall with no flaws, but some of these holes are right next to light switches, I'm interacting with the thing right next to them all the time!
I might be stretching the metaphor a little - At least with the wall, in most cases you can do something about it.
I distinctly remember it being advertised with both factions ( to have "two completely different experiences with your captain " ) .
ive said this multiple times, so to save you the trouble of actually reading the thread, which you obviously haven't, I'm not expecting perfection. I know there will be bugs, I'm not debating that. But lets list the bugs off the top of my head that do affect gameplay since you are, i'm guessing, new here and prolly haven't made it past lvl 30 on your first toon.
ESTFS - Borg are one shotting people with invisible plasma torpedoes. not high yield, not critical hits, but one massive 50k+ hit that that will kill you with full shield and hull hp.
Omega reputation t4 - Mk XII prosthetic arm store is empty
Romulan reputation t4 - Hyper Plasma Torpedo isn't there as advertised, its instead a placeholder rapid fire torpedo not part of the set.
Romulan Embassy consoles - duplicates of the -threat and + threat consoles, no disparity in them, IE all of the plasma infuser graviton consoles are -threat and duplicated in the store
Romulan Embassy plasma infuser consoles - plasma burn proc is not being properly added to some weapons.
Romulan Embassy Boffs - racial traits aren't working at all.
Omega Impulse Engine - cool down reduction isn't working for slipstream travel
UI Chat interface - half the time, it doesn't recognize im in a fleet so I can't select 'fleet' as a default chat channel, I'm having to type in /fleet every time I want to say something.
these are just some of the bugs I've encountered since s7 launched. These aren't graphical glitches, these are game play affecting bugs. Wanna try again?
Acutally hoss, there are quite a few issues with this game that could be deemed excessive. Ive encountered bugs that have been around for a long time...bugs like the Red Alert bug, a bug that for me is game breaking...still not fixed.
These devs remind me of the inexperienced devs over at TOR. A game i played for just 6 months before realizing what a garbage pile it was. I am beginning to feel that way here with STO, just 2 months and 5 level 50's later.
I hope one day, this game will be polished, but more than likely, it will not. If your having fun playing and enjoy the game, then by all means, enjoy. However, it may soon lose another paying customer/zen purchaser
Geez... I started playing just before season 7, is this what I got to look forward to and more?
My character Tsin'xing
Nearly every mission and facet of combat is buggy.
Completed Starbase, Embassy, Mine, Spire and No Win Scenario
Nothing to do anymore.
http://dtfleet.com/
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STO might have some growing pains, but at least it is F2P and still growing. May not be prefect, but we are still getting more then other F2P games out there (SW:TOR for one shining example of how to give your players nothing in F2P and somehow still attract players. :rolleyes: )
Jim
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